Star Tribune
St. Paul Public Library announces a second wave of its popular laser-eyed loon library cards
It only took three days for St. Paul Public Library to run out of its limited-edition, laser-eyed loon library cards. But those who missed out in the initial release will get a second chance, now that the library has announced it will print a second run of the cards, expected to be released by the end of February.
“Well … those went quick!” said a Facebook post by the library Thursday afternoon about the first run and confirming the second batch of cards.
There will also be more stickers released that feature the laser-eye loon design which can be used to cover the regular, non-loon library cards. The cards are free and come with a coupon for 15% off loon-themed merchandise sold at the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library shop.
There were 500 laser loon cards and 500 library card-sized stickers in the first run released on Tuesday, but a larger amount will be released in the second run, library spokesperson Stacy Opitz said.
Claire Huber, a communications specialist for the St. Paul Public Library who designed the loon card, said in an email that the response to the cards has been “enthusiastic, to say the least.”
“We knew this was going to be a popular offering but didn’t quite anticipate the level of joy and pride it would elicit — people are excited to be a part of the city of St. Paul and the St. Paul Public Library system,” Huber said in the email.
Loon designs, ranging from several with laser eyes to one with a zoomed-in side profile, were among the most popular themes submitted by the public to be included on the new Minnesota state flag. The flag design selected doesn’t include a loon, although the state bird is featured on the new state seal.
Following the release of the loon cards, St. Paul library officials reported a noticeable spike in people signing up for the library.
“We’ve heard from staff at libraries across the city that they have been busy these past few days welcoming new people into their libraries and assisting with many new library card sign-ups,” Huber said.
“Under the Biden-Harris Administration, more than 11,000 bridges in communities across America are finally getting the repairs they’ve long needed with funding from our infrastructure law,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, in a news release. He said the bridge repairs ensure “people and goods can get where they need to go, safely and efficiently.”
A 19-year-old driver trying to get around slower vehicles collided head-on with an SUV in Wright County and killed one person and injured several others, officials said Thursday.
SUV passenger Janice Evelyn Johnson, 92, of Arden Hills, died Monday at HCMC from injuries she suffered in the collision on Oct. 22 in Monticello Township on County Road 37 near County Road 12, the Sheriff’s Office said in a search warrant affidavit filed in Hennepin County District Court.
The driver and two other people in the SUV survived their injuries, according to the affidavit, which the Sheriff’s Office filed to collect Johnson’s medical records at HCMC as part of its investigation.
According to the affidavit:
Deputies arrived at the crash scene and spoke with the car’s driver, Christian Kabunangu, of Brooklyn Park, who said he was heading west on County Road 37 and found himself behind two vehicles traveling below the speed limit.
“He was late for work, so he decided to pass them,” the affidavit read. Kabunangu said he saw the oncoming SUV and estimated it was about a half-mile down the road.
As he attempted to pass one of the slower vehicles, he explained, the other driver “sped up, preventing him from getting back into the westbound lane,” the filing continued.
As the Honda drew near, he swerved to the left, but the SUV did the same and they collided.
Star Tribune
University of Minnesota researchers find that native plants can beat invasive buckthorn on their own turf.
If the invasive buckthorn that is strangling the life out of Minnesota’s forest floor has a weakness, it is right now, in the shortening daylight of the late fall.
With a little help and planning, certain native plants have the best chance of beating buckthorn back and helping to eradicate it from the woods, according to new research from the University of Minnesota.
The sprawling bush has been one of the most formidable invasive species to take root in Minnesota since it was brought from Europe in the mid-1800s. It was prized as an ornamental privacy hedge. All the attributes that make buckthorn good at that job — dense thick leaves that stay late into the fall, toughness and resilience to damage and pruning, unappealing taste to wildlife and herbivores — have allowed it to thrive in the wild.
It grows fast and thick, out-competing the vast majority of native plants and shrubs for sunlight and then starving them under its shade. It creates damaging feedback loops, providing ideal habitat and calcium-rich food for invasive earthworms, which in turn kill off and uproot native plants. That leaves even less competition for buckthorn to take root, said Mike Schuster, a researcher for the university’s Department of Forest Resources.
When it takes over a natural area, buckthorn creates a “green desert,” Schuster said. “All that’s left is just a perpetual hedge, with little biodiversity.”
Since the 1990s, when the spread became impossible to ignore, Minnesota foresters, park managers and cities have spent millions of dollars a year trying to beat it back. They’ve used chainsaws and trimmers, poisons and herbicides, and even goats for hire. The buckthorn almost always grows back within a few years.
It’s been so pervasive that a conventional wisdom formed that buckthorn seeds could survive dormant in the soil for up to six years. That thought has led to a sort of fatalism: even if the plant were entirely removed from a property there would be a looming threat that it would sprout back, Schuster said.
But there is nothing special about buckthorn seeds. They only survive for a year or two.
